Seriously, though: they figured out that the stones were souls very early in the story, and they still said "yeah, let's grab as many of these things as we can and sell them."
Then they tried to cut up peoples' souls to make jewellery from them.
Then they tried to help the government harvest peoples' souls for energy.
At no point did they stop to think "Hey, maybe we shouldn't be grabbing souls from the afterlife to cut up and use as glorified nuclear rods."
And then they're surprised to find out later that a future where soul power is ubiquitous ends with the metaphysical underpinnings of human existence coming undone?
Are these people retarded?
It's like the Shinra situation in FFVII, but somehow way worse.